The Hilditch–McGill Chinese Palace Temple: Exhibitions, Mass Culture, and China in the British Imagination in the 1920s
It is possible that Hilditch asked Chinese residents in Manchester to assist him with the services but had been rejected, but their omission is more likely down to the fact he wanted to cement his status as the authority of the temple. By donning Chinese robes, Hilditch added a heightened sense of reality to the display than would have been created if he had worn English clothes, while simultaneously increasing his supposed authority; he played both museum guide and Buddhist Priest.
Teaching Buddhism in Britain’s Schools: Redefining the Insider Role
Insider input through home nurture, teaching materials, teacher expertise, insider input and pedagogy had already been applied to good effect in the classroom. However, in the areas of the Agreed Syllabuses for Religious Education, school ethos and national representation input was found lacking or skewed toward ‘convert’ Buddhist expectations, while the voice of the more numerous ‘migrant’ Buddhist community remained relatively unheard.
📖 Multiculturalism and Western Convert Buddhist Movements in East London, A Qualitative Study (A free, 271-page thesis from 2008)
Tags: #Race #FridayReads #BritishBuddhism
https://buddhistuniversity.net/content/booklets/buddhism-diversity-and-race_smith-sharon-e
Buddhism, Diversity, and Race: Multiculturalism and Western Convert Buddhist Movements in East London, A Qualitative Study
The case-studies are of two of the largest Western convert Buddhist movements in the UK—the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) and Soka Gakkai International-UK (SGI-UK)—and focus on their branches in the multicultural inner-city location of East London. The findings suggest that most Buddhists of colour in these movements come from the second generation of the diaspora.
The Open Buddhist University